22. Sunday Week Seven (pt1.)
"Stop glaring at me, tigru," Eli said as he walked in front of me.
"No. I don't want to," I childishly responded to his back, lugging my gym bag along with me.
"It's Sunday, we train on Sunday's."
My eyes couldn't help but roll as he strode into the gym, "I know that, but I wanted to be sleeping off my hangover, like every other teenager does on a Sunday."
Eli halted at my response, turning to face me, "Rei, you're the one who blackmailed me into these lessons."
"Urgh, yeah, I know, sorry. But do you think we could have a more relaxed session, not go so hardcore?"
He smirked at me, "okay."
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What. An. Asshole.
That was most definitely not a chilled out session, I was dying.
"You did that on purpose," I stated but Eli didn't care what I had to say as his eyes tracked the movement of my lips as they wrapped around the straw of my chocolate milkshake. I cleared my throat to get his attention and his eyes flickered up to meet my own before he smirked and shrugged his shoulders at me.
Starving after our training session, I had made Eli drive us to a diner on the way home where we had stopped for lunch. We had just finished eating and I was about to make another attempt at getting to know him.
"So what if I did?"
"Why though?"
Eli leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table, he grabbed my drink from my hands before taking a sip. He then responded, "because you asked me to," before releasing my drink and leaning back in his chair across from me.
"What do you wanna do, Eli?" My mouth asked the question before my mind could comprehend why I wanted to know.
His perfectly scarred eyebrow raised, "really?"
Almost like an automatic response, my eyes rolled, "yes, really. Pick a job you want to do after high school, any job you want."
He sat up straighter in his chair and peered over at me curiously, "okay. A car mechanic."
"Really?"
"Yes, really," he mocked.
"Why?"
Eli didn't say anything for a moment and I knew that he was calculating whether he wanted to talk to me or not; whether he wanted to let me in or not. A sigh escaped his lips and his long legs bashed against mine under the table as he stretched them out. They nestled between my own and I felt their warmth emanating through my boots.
"Because it's what I used to do with my grandad. We used to fix up old cars together."
"If you like cars so much, why do you drive the bike all the time?"
"I like bikes too, tigru, cars are just what I used to do with him. It used to annoy my grandma because she always used to say that she felt left out."
"You two were really close, weren't you?"
He made no response to my comment so I asked another question instead, "do you still speak to your grandma?"
Those cobalt eyes flickered up to meet my own murky brown ones and I watched as the shutter fell over them. He tilted his head in the direction of my drink, "are you done?"
Curious, I wrapped my lips around the straw again, met his stare head-on and sucked. His eyes flared and he reached forward to grab the glass out from under me, "yeah, you're done."
The giggle that escaped me only seemed to anger him more as he threw some money on the table and practically tugged me out of the quaint little diner.
"Hey! I was gonna pay," I admonished.
My comment caused Eli to stop in his strides back towards his bike and instead he turned to face me. All traces of amusement left me as he stepped in my direction. Wanting to see what he would do, I stepped back and continued stepping back until my back hit the sidewall of the diner.
"Pay, tigru?" he asked as he halted right in front of me, he raised one arm and placed his palm flat against the brick wall to the left of my head. "Do you mean for the meal or that little stunt you just pulled?"
My lips parted as I looked up at him. My tongue darted out to wet them and his eyes tracked the movement, "what stunt?"
"Don't play dumb, you know what I'm talking about."
"Do I?" I leaned up to whisper my next question into his ear, "are you sure you aren't just imagining things, Eli?"
Eli's other inked hand travelled upwards until he was gently gripping my chin between his thumb and forefinger. His head slowly leaned down and just before his lips could meet mine, I turned my head so they met my cheek instead.
Eli growled but said nothing, he pushed off from the wall and grabbed my hand so he could lead me back to his bike. Back to his bike so he could take me home and then we could just carry on doing whatever the hell this was.
Annoyed, I tugged my hand out of his grasp which made him turn to face me where I had stopped in my tracks. Neither of us said anything, we both just looked at each other. His face was impassive, that stupid expressionless face he made when things weren't in his complete control; I hated that face.
"What is it, Reillyn?"
Cutting my own nose off to spite my face, I responded, "nothing," before marching past him and waiting at his bike.
The journey home was quick and I was thankful for it. When we arrived at my little bungalow I wasted no time in dismounting his bike and striding off into my house. No one was home, thank god, because just as I shut the front door behind me, it was shoved open again.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Eli yelled.
I span around to face him, "me? What the hell is wrong with you? It is getting really difficult to deal with your bullshit alternating attitudes. You won't open up to me in the diner but then you're more than happy to try to kiss me against a brick wall less than two minutes later," I raised my hands in exasperation before continuing, "And then that face. That stupid passive face, I refuse to talk to that emotionless face anymore. I have known you for just over two months now and you still refuse to talk to me about anything remotely personal."
By the end of my rant, I was breathing heavily and Eli was staring at me incredulously. I took a deep breath and a stepped towards Eli. Without even realising it, I was going to reach for him but I stopped myself and kept the solid distance between us.
"I understand that there are things that you don't wanna talk about. And I'm not asking you to give me everything but I need something, Eli. You told me about your grandad and your necklace but that's all I really know about. I want to know you, properly, but I can't if you won't let me."
Eli stood up straighter before he strode over to the sofa and sat down. Confused, I stared over at him until he looked me straight in the eye and stated, "come here then."
Sceptical, I traipsed over to him, stopping when I was stood to the side of him. Apparently losing patience, Eli let out a sigh before grabbing my arm and pulling me onto his lap. The position I landed in was intimate, with both my legs either side of his, straddling them.
"I'm not kissing you, Eli." Even though I wanted to.
Eli gave me a soft smile, "I know that Reillyn." He manoeuvred my arms so they were resting on his shoulders, my hands playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. My rose gold pleated shorts rode up a little from my position and he placed his hands on my thighs, drawing unconscious circles; I prayed my Nan wasn't coming home anytime soon.
"My grandma lives about an hour from here but Ma doesn't get on with her at all. My gran blames my mum for the split and my mum thinks my gran is a bad influence. That's why the twins don't know her, because they won't get over their pride."
"Split? You mean your mum and dad?"
Eli's eyes darkened slightly, not in a good way, but in a menacing way and I thought he wasn't going to answer me until, "yeah. They were never married but the break up was messy. The twins don't know him well and Riley's pretty much indifferent."
"That's probably because he looks up to you as a father figure," he gave me a small smile, "do you visit your gran often?"
"Not as much as I want to. I go every few weekends, sometimes Riles comes with me. Raven lives near her so she visits there a lot."
"Raven said that she wasn't actually related to you guys?"
Eli sucked in a breathe off air, "she shouldn't have."
"Hey," I cupped his face in between my hands, "we don't have to talk about everything, Eli. I just wanted to know a little." I leaned forward and placed a peck on his lips, "thank you."
He 'hmmed' in response and moved forward to try and catch my lips again but I tilted my head away from him. Eli grunted and leant back against the sofa, "what now?"
Amused, I gave him a large smile, "nothing, it's just more fun when you try for it."
That perfectly scarred eyebrow rose again, "try?"
"Yeah, don't want to make it too easy for you, Eli."
"Easy, tigru? You think you're easy?" He stated with disbelief.
My hand swatted the back of his head and I pouted at him which made him laugh, "you and I both know that easy is boring."
"Hmm, and you're the furthest thing from boring, tigru."
Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop the shit-eating grin from taking over my face. Eli wrapped his arms around my hips and leant forwards, eyes on my lips, "gonna let me kiss you now?"
Just as his lips pressed against mine, any response I had was stolen as it was announced, "not bloody likely."
I practically jumped off of Eli's lap at the sound of my Nan's voice, "um Nan, hey."
"Don't you 'hey' me. I don't care what you and that gorgeous specimen of yours get up to in your own time but you will keep that crap," she motioned wildly at the sofa, "of my furniture."
I nodded vigorously, Eli seemed unfazed as he went over to help my Nan with the shopping.
"Just gonna stand there, tigru, or you gonna help?" Eli questioned.
"Uh, you two seem like you've got it covered."
"Yes, you're right, we do," Nan declared which made me instantly suspicious, "you can go and pick up Ty, he's just round the corner at Mason's house." And my suspicions were justified.
"Mason's house? Nan, that's a 20-minute walk," I exclaimed, "one way!"
"Well, you'd better get going. You don't want to be walking home in the dark."
"You're joking, right?"
She stood up straight from her shopping bags and looked over at me, "why would this be something to joke about? I could joke about that ridiculous scrap of cloth you call a t-shirt; yes. Picking up Ty; no."
"I'll drive you," Eli offered
My Nan interrupted before I could even answer, "no, she's okay. You can stay here and help me with dinner." Um, what?
"Dinner? No no no," I tried to drag Eli towards the door, "he's not staying for dinner."
"Reillyn Cole! I just saw the two of you getting all touchy-feely on my sofa. If I want him to stay for dinner, he's bloody well going to stay for dinner!"
"Dinner sounds good," Eli added in, kiss ass.
I growled under my breath and reluctantly went to get Ty, slamming the door on my way out. Leaving my nan and Eli alone in my house.
Tonight was definitely going to be interesting.
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2066 words^
Edited
I really like this chapter, feels like progress for Rei in terms of getting Eli to open up.